The Cellist

Daniel Silva, the globally recognised and bestselling author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, has released a gripping and contemporary thriller starring renowned espionage and art restorer Gabriel Allon.

Death has a long-standing rendezvous with Viktor Orlov. He used to be the wealthiest man in Russia, but he is now living in luxurious exile in London and has been fighting the totalitarian kleptocrats who have taken over the Kremlin nonstop. His property is one of the most highly guarded private residences in London, located on Chelsea's exclusive Cheyne Walk. Yet somehow, on a rainy summer evening, in the midst of a global pandemic, Russia’s vengeful president finally manages to cross Orlov’s name off his kill list.

In front of him were a pile of papers, a half-empty glass of red wine, and the receiver from his landline phone.

There is a lethal nerve agent included in the materials. The Metropolitan Police ascertain that one of Orlov's workers, a well-known investigative journalist from the anti-Kremlin Moskovskaya Gazeta, transported them to his residence. And when the reporter slips from London hours after the killing, MI6 concludes she is a Moscow Center assassin who has cunningly penetrated Orlov’s formidable defenses.

However, Gabriel Allon feels his allies in British intelligence are gravely misguided; he owes his life to Viktor Orlov. His fervent quest for the truth will lead him from London to Amsterdam and ultimately to Geneva, where a private intelligence agency run by the Russian president's boyhood buddy is using "active measures" akin to those of the KGB to subvert the West from inside. The group, called the Haydn Group, is preparing a horrific act of violence that would devastate an already split America and leave Russia unopposed. It can only be stopped by Gabriel Allon and a bright young lady who works for the dirtiest bank in the world.

The Cellist deftly examines one of the greatest challenges to the West today: the corrupting power of filthy money, wielded by a resurgent and reckless Russia. It is elegant and intelligent, provocative and brave. It is both a book of optimism and a sobering critique of how precarious democracy is. And it proves once again why Daniel Silva is regarded as his generation’s finest writer of suspense and international intrigue.